CES: Audi, Lexus explore self-driving cars

Lexus unveiled this experimental autonomous car at the 2013 CES in Las Vegas.

Lexus unveiled this experimental autonomous car at the 2013 CES in Las Vegas.

Tiffany Hsu

Audi cars are stuffed with technology, with electronics making up "90% of innovations" at the German automaker, executives told a packed room during the CES convention Tuesday.

And, like Google and Lexus, Audi is trying to develop a self-driving car. The company said it has developed a laser scanning system that will be able to create 3-D maps of a vehicle's surrounding, allowing computers to guide the car around obstacles.

A prototype shown at Tuesday's talk, meant to be mounted on a vehicle's grill, is much smaller than the bulkier towers being outfitted on the tops of other driverless test cars.

But, as Lexus officials made clear Monday, Audi executives stressed that they're focused on "piloted driving," not "autonomous driving" without any human input.

Still, he said he believes that piloted driving "will become reality in this decade," though he and other executives declined to speculate on a more specific time line. Japan and other areas with crowded downtown spaces will likely become first adopters, they said.